Skins, in Wikipedia terminology, are different layouts of Wikipedia. Wikipedia, as a website powered by MediaWiki, is a skinnable website, which means the presentational style of the pages can be changed, provided you have a Wikipedia account (see below to change skin without logging in). If you are not logged in, you can only use the default skin, Vector. However, this page features screenshots of all the different skins along with links allowing to load the Wikipedia's Main Page using them. Including Vector, there were a total of nine alternative skins, mostly kept for historical reasons. Some of these lacked many features as they were not actively developed. As a result, on April 15, 2013[needs update], the available skins were reduced to four: Vector; Monobook; Cologne Blue; and Modern, after a survey revealed that these were by far the most common skins used by Wikipedia editors.

Screenshots

How to change the skin

Once you have an account, go to your preferences and go to the "Skin" section of the Appearance tab. With the default skin, this page can be accessed at any time from the "my preferences" link placed on the top right corner. Choose your skin and then click Publish changes. Then, all pages will be loaded with the new selected skin.

However, any user may change the skin of a page for them only, but only one each time, by typing ?useskin=skinname to the end of the URL (e.g. ?useskin=vector).

Customisation (advanced users)

Users can customise the way default skins[1] appear using specific subpages of their user page. These subpages are viewable by anybody but can only be edited by the user that the subpage belongs to and by administrators. Modifying these wiki pages only affects their owner.

You can use both the common and the skin-specific files; if you do this, the common file is loaded before the skin-specific one.

Note: these links are redirects to your own customisation subpages; Special:MyPage is an alias for your userpage (try it and see). For example, when your user name is example, Special:MyPage/common.css will direct you to User:Example/common.css.

If you have edited your personal skin files then you need to wait at least 30 seconds for the servers to update, then bypass your browser cache to see the change.

JavaScript

On Wikipedia, JavaScript can be used to add new features such as add find/replace textboxes or give advanced rollback options. There are scripts to customise everything, from default font style to custom buttons.

Many script pages can be imported and used. Different scripts can also be used in conjunction with each other to accomplish several tasks at once. Some scripts are available as "Gadgets", which means they can be installed by simply ticking a box in the "Gadgets" tab of Special:Preferences.